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Sunday, October 23, 2011

On Sunday, Hull switched his avatar to the image above and wrote, "New pic for all my friends in buffalo xoxo." Which is the greatest thing in the history of all-time, ever.

As a refresher for the youngin's in the crowd: In triple overtime of Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final, Brett Hull of the Dallas Stars shot the puck on Domink Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres, who made the save. The rebound went outside the crease to Hull's skate, and he kicked it to his stick. His left skate entered the crease, he shot again and he scored to win the Cup for Dallas in Buffalo.

Except … at that time, the NHL had a completely asinine rule on the books in which a goal was disallowed if any part of an offensive player's skate was in the crease before the puck. Other goals in the regular season that resembled Hull's were disallowed; his was allowed to stand, and the Sabres lost in the Final.

The rationale: That the NHL had declared earlier that season, in a memo to teams, that if a player was in control of the puck, his skate could be in the crease. Despite the save and rebound, they considered it one big possession.